ZAMBEZIA INTEGRATED LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM Towards a Sustainable Forest Management and Improved Livelihoods of Rural Communities Forests play an important role in the carbon balance of the atmosphere and directly influence the Earth’s climate. They act as the lungs of the Earth’s surface and enables the existence of living organisms. Yet the forest cover around the world has been reducing at alarming rates. In Mozambique, agriculture, illegal logging and wood extraction for domestic use have been pointed as the main drivers of deforestation and forest degradation. A recent study conducted in Mozambique revealed that, among the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation, agriculture is the most important one, responsible for more than 65% of forest cover loss throughout the country between 2000-2013. Actions at both the national and subnational level are urgently needed to address and mitigate those drivers. Since 2011, Mozambique has received a US$ 8.6 million grant from the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF)1 to help the 5 Figure 1 country in its process to reduce deforestation and forest degradation plus forest conservation, sustainable management of the forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks through several ground activities (REDD+). The grant has helped Mozambique achieve a number of significant milestones: to establish a REDD+ Technical Unit (UT-REDD+) both at national and landscape level and a MRV Unit for (Measurement, Reporting and Verification); to prepare a National REDD+ Strategy that was approved in 2016; to initiate the process to ensure social and environmental safeguards, to conduct different thematic studies to assess the drivers associated with deforestation and forest degradation both at national and landscape level and to determine a new forest definition (30% of forest cover). It has also helped develop two jurisdictional Programs where certain forest and landscape interventions will be implemented on the ground; in Zambezia and Cabo Delgado (See Figure 1). 1 The FCPF is a global partnership, hosted at the World Bank. 2 Total Project Area: 
 5.3 million hectares (nine districts) of which 66% is covered by forests Zambézia is the fourth most deforested Province in Mozambique, as well as the most densely populated: • It accounts for 13% of 
 Mozambique’s forest and • 8% of its deforestation The Population in Project Area: 
 1.2 million, 70.5% of the population is under the poverty line Deforestation rate: 0.62% which represents ca. 19,000 hectares per year Area includes globally important biodiversity:  igure 2: ZILMP Administrative boundaries. Forest cover 5 F Two Conservation Areas (CAs) areas with endemic which comprises around 66% of the landscape is represent- and endangered species, and mangrove forests ed in green. spatial distributed Red spots represent forest loss between 2000-2014 ZAMBEZIA INTEGRATED LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM (ZILMP) I.  The Zambezia Integrated Landscape Management Program is one of the two jurisdictional programs established under the REDD+ framework in Mozambique. The program covers nine districts in the Zambezia province – an area of 53.000 km2, of which 66% is covered by forests (see figure 2). The initiative is fully aligned with the strategic plans of the Government of Mozambique whose goals involve protecting and ensuring the sustainable management of natural resources, and promoting the wellbeing in rural areas (Five- year plan of the Government, National Sustainable Development Program and the Standing Forest Program). The area has been chosen as an Emissions Reduction Program Area (ERP Area) due to its high deforestation rate, extraordinary biodiversity, and because it’s a high population density area, whose economy depends on agriculture and forest resources. From 2000 to 2014, the area lost about 268.000 hectares of forests, representing an annual deforestation rate of 0.62%. This is well above the national average of 0.58%. The causes of deforestation are primarily small-scale slash and burn agriculture, followed by charcoal production and sale in the nearby (and sometime further) urban centers and illegal timber extraction (Mercier et. al., 2015). While commercial agriculture is not considered a significant driver of deforestation today, it could become so if growth corridors envisaged by the Government are developed without adequate spatial and land- use planning. In addition, although data is limited, erosion is assumed to be a significant issue, given that the Landscape encompasses some of the most vulnerable areas to erosion in the country. Uncontrolled wild fires are also a constant threat to the Landscape, contributing to both deforestation and erosion. Associated to that is the degradation of waterways, especially as riparian forests are systematically removed to make way for small-scale agriculture lands. The provincial arm of the UT-REDD is the main manager of the ZILMP, and it is an intersectoral unit comprised of technical officers in Forestry, Land, Agriculture and Infrastructure. The unit is located in the district of Mocuba where, as the local saying goes, “all paths cross and Mozambique embraces itself”(“onde todos os caminhos cruzam-se e Moçambique abraça-se”). The ZILMP Unit was created in 2015 with the aim 3 to promote innovative and decentralized governance arrangements ZAMBEZIA SUSTANINABLE at the Provincial and District levels and to coordinate all the activities DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM implemented with impacts on emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, including in relation to biodiversity conservation, sustainable management of forests and natural resources, and PA R T I C I PA N T S : enhancement of forest carbon stocks, whether financed by the Government of Mozambique, through the World Bank or other Public sector partners. The Unit has also helped establish the Zambezia Private sector Sustaninable Development Platform in 2016, with the goal of bringing together the different stakeholders (the government, private sector, Civil society civil society and academia) across the landscape to discuss strategic Government of Mozambique actions to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. NGOs International development agencies  Platform that Promotes an Enabling Environment II. A for Forest Conservation Research Institutions The Zambezia Sustaninable Development Platform is an important milestone for Mozambique. It’s a groundbreaking new model for multi-stakeholder engagement where civil society, the private sector, academia and the Government for the first time in Mozambique, have an adequate forum to sit together and discuss issues related to natural resources management. The platform allows for broad discussions and __________****__________ learning opportunities between stakeholders, as shown by the examples Some Members below: • In June 2016, the Platform organized a visit to the private company of Portucel’s plantation project area in Zambezia, to discuss member institutions’ concerns and issues more in depth. For a long time, forest plantations have been misperceived as a problem for the environment and surrounding communities – irrespectively of the practices applied. Yet the visit led to a better understanding and appreciation of the company’s work in relation to surrounding communities, and involved discussions on the kind of market and technical assistance that Portucel can provide for those actors that are interested in getting involved in the forestry plantation value chain. 4 • The Fundo Nacional de Desenvolvimento Sustentavel (FNDS)2 has signed a MoU with the Provincial University, UNIZAMBEZE (through the platform), with the goal of enabling a larger involvement by university in trainings to forest operators and civil society in general. Along with this MoU, UNIZAMBEZE organized the first Mozambican Scientific Conference on Agroforestry Systems on October 27-28, with financial and technical support of the World Bank. The conference brought together over 200 researchers, students, politicians, civil society and private sector representatives to discuss scientific topics related to crop production and productivity, land, environment, forest conservation and climate change. • The Platform has also enabled technical assistance collaboration between the private sector, academia and civil society to improve community work for the Nipiode Community forest concession. Nipiode was established in 2007 with the aim to promote exploitation of timber and non-timber forest products (NTFPs) as means to improve livelihoods of the people living within and around the forest concession area. Following concerns about the management capacity of the Concession, which were raised by different civil society organizations through the Platform, several support tools have been initiated. This includes the Private sector, which has shown interest to provide technical assistance to Nipiode; the University , which will provide different trainings to the concession holders; civil society through Organização Rural de Ajuda Mútua (ORAM) that have applied for a US$50,000 grant from the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) to support the revitalization and sensitization of the community-based association who is the legal holder of the concession and the financing of the GoM of around US$50,000 to support Nipiode.  omplementary Investments to scale up the tackling of deforestation III. C and forest degradation To scale up the actions needed to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, the ZILMP works with initiatives under several World Bank financed Government projects; The Conservation Areas for Biodiversity and Development Project (MOZBIO) (US$46.3 million), the Agriculture and Natural Resources Landscape Management Project (US$40 million) and the Mozambique Forest Investment Project (MozFIP), (US$ 47 million) which is still in preparation and is scheduled to be effective by March 2017. Despite their different entry points and focus, all the projects have a common goal: to enhance the living conditions of communities through the sustainable use of forest and other natural resources. Along with those investments, many international and national organizations are also implementing different activities to reduce the emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. The coordination and harmonization of the different projects and activities across the Area is done through the UT-REDD+ provincial unit. Some examples are: • To address the issue of shifting cultivation, the organization Etc Terra is implementing a conservation agriculture project with the communities surrounding the Gilé National Reserve. The goal of the project is to increase crop production and productivity without increasing the deforested areas. Etc Terra also works in close collaboration with the International Foundation for Wildlife Management (IGF) to promote the sustainable use of the forest resources and to implement strategic activities to reduce the pressure on the forest resources in the Gilé National Reserve. • To address the production and use of charcoal – one of the main drivers of forest degradation both at national and at the landscape level – Carbonsink, an organization with large experience on sustainable charcoal production and use, is implementing a pilot project in Gilé and Pebane. The organization intends Fundo Nacional de Desenvolvimento Sustentavel (FNDS) is a Fund established under MITADER to mobilize and program 2  international financing for sustainable development projects. 5 to help rural communities increase the efficiency of their charcoal usage through introducing around 4.000 clean cook stoves. On the supply side, RADEZA is training local charcoal producers to produce charcoal using kilns with high levels of efficiency and also using rapid growing tree species such as those of the Eucalyptus genus. A training was held at RADEZA’s training center in Mocubela. They have also partnered with Etc Terra to train members of the communities in which EtcTerra is implementing their activities on different topics related to REDD+. • To keep track of and visualize all the stakeholders and different activities within the ERP area and to facilitate successful implementation of all the investments across the landscapes, the GoM through the FNDS has developed an online spatial planning database3. Along with the database, spatial analysis4 has been implemented to prioritize activities across the ERP landscape. Prioritization maps have been prepared using available geospatial data and participatory criteria definition and the results of these activities are only instruments, not an end in themselves. The Potential of Results-Based Finance for the ZILMP IV.  The FCPF has two complementary but distinct funds, the Readiness Fund (RF) and the Carbon Fund (CF). The RF is aimed at helping developing countries to get ready for future systems of financial incentives for REDD+, whereas the CF targets countries that have benefited from the Readiness Fund and demonstrated significant progress during this process. The way that the CF works is that it negotiates contracts with countries to put in place actions to reduce a certain amount of emissions and then the CF provides payments based on performance, i.e., only after actual emission reductions and/or enhancements in forest carbon stocks have been verified. The CF payments are intended as an incentive to the recipient countries to reduce emissions and since the payments are distributed according to a Benefit Sharing Mechanism prepared by the country, in consultation with relevant stakeholders, including forest dwellers, forest-dependent people, the private sector and others, the payments aim to achieve long-term sustainability in financing forest conservation and management programs. FCPF complements the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations on REDD+ by demonstrating how REDD+ can be applied at the country level. Results-based finance, such as the CF, is a cornerstone in the approach to REDD+, as outlined in the Paris Climate Agreement, which was agreed upon by 195 nations in December 2015. During this conference, Mozambique, represented by the Minister of Land, Environment and Rural Development signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with the FCPF Carbon Fund to negotiate the purchase of carbon emission reductions up to a value of US$50 million. Based on an Emission Reduction Project Idea Note (ER- PIN), which was approved in October of 2015, and the LoI, the ZILMP is now commencing the development of a so called Emission Reductions Program Document (ER-PD). The ER-PD is a key document that presents the annual historical emissions over a reference period within the landscape also known as Reference Emission Levels (REL). These are expressed in tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (TCO2eq) per year. The FCPF Carbon 3 http://landscape.nextgis.com/resource/29/display It is recognized that these maps and models present significant imperfections, due to the map scale and the use of secondary datasets. However, 4  the exercise was important to prioritize activities across the landscapes and identify the availability of the land for implementing different projects. 6  xpected Emission Reductions for the Zambézia Program between 5 E the first ten years of the ER Program (2016 to 2025). Fund has committed to by up to 8.724.732 TCO2eq resulting from emission reductions or removals. Another key step towards obtaining the results-based payments is to prepare a Benefit Sharing Mechanism for the ZILMP. The benefit-sharing document will describe how all the carbon and non-carbon benefits will be distributed among the stakeholders in the landscape. At this stage, a Consultant firm is preparing both the ERPD and the Benefit Mechanism document, in consultation with relevant stakeholders. Mozambique is planning to submit the ERPD and the Benefit Sharing mechanism document of the ZILMP in December 2017 and to sign an Emission Reduction Payment Agreement (ERPA) in March 2018. After that, ZILMP ERPD activities can be implemented, and based on monitoring and biannual reporting by the country through the very recently established MRV Unit, emissions can be verified and payments can be received. Box 1. Main achievements of the ZILMP 1. UT-REDD+ technical unit established December, 2013 2. ER-PIN approved October, 2015 3. LOI signed December, 2015 4. Multi stakeholder’s platform created and operational May, 2016 5. MoU signed among the platform, Portucel, Unizambeze and Carbonsink October, 2016 6. Charcoal association creation and trained December, 2016 7. Prepare an ER-PD In progress 8. Reference Emission Level set In progress 9. Develop a Benefit Sharing Plan In progress 10.  Extension agents trained on conservation agriculture techniques In progress 11. Community – private sector partnerships for the sustainable management of the forests  In progress 7 F o r m o r e i n f o r m at i o n : National Sustainable Development Fund (FNDS) (Fundo Nacional de Desenvolvimento Sustentável) Rua Joe Slovo, 21, Cidade de Maputo Website: www.redd.org.mz Facebook: facebook.com/REDDMOZAMBIQUE Email: reddmozambique@hotmail.com 8